Photograph

My family's 2011 Christmas card photo looks flawless. My brother is wearing a starched, collared shirt and my sister and I both have on elegant blouses that match in color. We are huddled in front of the Christmas tree, embracing each other lovingly, bright, shining eyes radiating the essence of holiday cheer. Looking at this photo, one would think we were the ideal family. That is why photographs can be so deceiving. They capture one infinitely small place in time and betray the nature of the surrounding environment. If the camera could have portrayed my mother barking orders from behind the viewfinder and the intermittent complaining from my siblings, the card would have been much less appealing.

A photo can help us reminisce about the good times of the past, but how trustworthy is that image? The picture tells us what clothes we were wearing, who we were with, and where we were, but it neglects to accurately portray the emotion of the scene. Of course everyone is smiling amongst linked arms; it's a photo! But how are we to remember that that was the night we got grounded or we fought with our best friends? We use photos to capture only what we want to preserve in our memory and the smiling faces in the photos are not always honest.

Photography is a deceptive art. The goal of photography is to create the most appealing image possible by manipulating angles and lighting. It is an art that conflicts with the nature of existence. Everything is constantly moving, changing, growing, but a photograph freezes one instant of time and removes it from the context of the universe. Modern technology makes the photograph even less trustworthy. Fish-eye lenses, lighting effects, and photoshop have destroyed my faith in the honesty of photography. There is no way to discern which images are raw and trustworthy from those that have been altered to do the bidding of a photographer.